3 Ways David Didn't Die & 2 He Might
by TenshiNanashi
Summary: 3 ways David didn't die but the story is an example of how he might have & two ways he might still die. That sums it up. Some of them are highly disturbing.


_Disclaimer: I own nothing__Fandom: Jumper  
Pairing: Some Gen, A touch of canon Millie/David, and David/Griffin if you squint__  
Length: 2, 300 or so  
Warning: violence, swearing, spoilers for movie, some disturbing concepts (__**number 2**__ was troubling even to me). Obviously these are death fics..._

_1. I knew this jumper once... crazy bastard! Tried to hop a whole building_

David Rice doesn't look back as he walks several steps away, and jumps to a spot outside of Millie's home. He is going to save the girl and live happily ever after. He isn't going to listen to a short, scruffy, socially inept person who he only met a little while ago. No matter how much he finds himself drawn to the only one like him.

He can see Millie inside. It's most likely a trap, but he can't not go now. Not after leaving his partner out defenseless in some nameless war zone in Chechnya. It would be a chickenshit thing to do, and he's had just about enough of that to last a lifetime.

He draws his pride up like a shield and heads into the building. The paladins appear out of seemingly no where, ensnaring him in electrified cables. He can't think, can't free himself, and twitches violently through it all.

Roland is ranting while readying the ritualistic death knife for using his body as a sheath. He groans and tries to jump. He knows he's been beaten, but he can't accept defeat. He tries again, straining himself. He pushes all of his strength into the jump, remembering all too late what Griffin had said about that jumper who had tried to hop a whole building.

His last thought is, 'Aw shit.'

_2. So you're a paladin and I'm a jumper. What happens now?_

"No Davy."

"But--"

"No." She gives him a stern look for good measure before returning to her greasy burger.

David's face crumbles and his lip trembles slightly. He gets a frustrated look on his face and he intently glares at his desired destination.

It only takes a second; she feels the familiar shift in the air, and then stands there horrified as her five year old son reappears in the fast food restaurant's plastic ball pit.

She stares in shock. Her little boy...a jumper? Suddenly it's like she doesn't know him. It's as if she hadn't carried him for nine months or cried when he went to preschool... He can't possibly be that same child. Now, she understands the stories of changeling children exchanged by evil spirits for your own.

What is she to do? As a paladin her years of training scream to turn the jumper in, or quietly execute him on her own to avoid the stigma of having birthed such a thing.

Her maternal side is yelling to hide the boy far from the reach of all the paladins, even herself, because then he will be safe. It whispers pleadingly that she could leave the boy with his father and just protect him from a distance.

In the end, her confliction dies with the realization that no matter what she chooses, he will most likely not live very long. It would be unrealistic to think that she could hide him forever, and then they would both suffer. Far kinder not to make him live through the torment of the hunt, and infinitely better not to make him live through having his own mother hunting him.

Decision made, she dries her tears and collects Dav...the jumper from the playroom. She takes it to headquarters where she turns it over to her mentor for a swift execution. She refuses to admit to flinching as the cold, hard hands of her teacher snap the jumper's fragile neck.

After all, it was the humane thing to do.

_3. Paladins kill jumpers, I kill paladins, class dismissed_

David Rice had been a discovered jumper since he was five years old. His mother, Mary Rice, had been caught by her fellow paladins attempting to hide him away with his father. She had been rightfully terminated for her disloyalty, and he had been taken in by the paladins instead of killed.

They had deemed him useful and had decided having their own personal jumper would be helpful in hunting down his kind. He was first studied, anything and everything was done to him, up to and including a bit of torture. As he aged he proved loyal to them. So he was trained in the ways of the paladin. Looked down upon, even hated by his peers, he developed a hatred for all the jumpers in the world. They were all damned.

When he was young and less well known, he was used to gain the trust of unsuspecting jumpers. He would play dumb, pretend to befriend them, and ultimately destroy them. He did that until it became rumored amongst jumpers across the world that there was a jumper in the ranks of the paladins.

That was when he was set loose to hunt the jumpers. He became a great assassin and killer of jumpers. It was said that he could follow them any where and was just as proficient in his kills as his reluctant and spiteful teacher, Roland Cox.

"Did you succeed, Jumper?"

"Yes, the boy and his entire family have been exterminated." He replies in an emotionless tone of voice.

"Good. We of the council have decided that you are ready to take on bigger challenges."

He stares blankly ahead, careful not to sully anyone by looking at them.

"We want you to hunt down the jumper known as Griffin."

Roland moves forwards (he can tell by the familiar footwear). "I don't believe you are capable of winning, but it is a win-win situation. If you win, we no longer have to deal with that meddlesome jumper. If you lose, we no longer have to tolerate your presence."

"I will do my best not to let you down."

He can't see it but he knows that some of the paladins (Roland in particular) are sneering at him. He revels in their hatred...it feeds his own.

"Get out of our sight."

He leaves and picks up where he left off tracking Griffin. He has been doing it in his spare time, on the off chance he may be allowed to hunt the jumper down. He has been aware of the other boy since what seems like forever. First alerted to Griffin's presence by the rising death count of paladins. He had been fascinated and enraged. He still is.

Griffin was last seen grabbing two paladins and taking them to where he could kill them in peace. Probably the ocean, since the repeated attempts at using the scar machine had led to salt water rushing through the portal, making it impossible to follow. He admires the jumper's intelligence and damns the man for using it so efficiently.

It is three in the morning when he finally manages to get a trace on where Griffin is. Some poor bastard has just encountered the jumper and his buddy is frantically calling for help. Roman Coliseum, he can jump to that.

He arrives in time to see the two paladin's getting their asses royally kicked by a jumper so good that its almost scary. He isn't frightened though, and immediately jumps into action.

Griffin sees him coming. They fight. It seems evenly matched. David using some of the paladin electric weapons, Griffin using pure fighting experience and skill. They kick and hit and jump, and finally he becomes frustrated with his lack of progress and jumps them to Chechnya. One of his favorite places because it's so war torn.

The change of scenery doesn't throw Griffin off though, and they still are deadlocked in the fight. Each one now resorting to dirtier and dirtier tricks. It is a battle to the death where there can be only one winner.

David manages to get the jumper down, and prepares to kill him. He raises a blade, aims it for the other's chest, and says "too bad, it's almost a shame to kill such a fighter."

He finds himself unceremoniously trapped in power lines which jolt electricity through his aching body. It feels like his childhood all over again, and he moans as current after current pulses through him.

The jumper turns and walks away.

David lifts his head to watch the jumper leave. This is one of the only times he has been able to look at anyone at all, for any length of time, for so long. He sees the back of a hardened young man with dirty black clothing and wild hair.

It sucks like hell that this jumper is the most beautiful thing he has seen in quite a while.

_1.) So would you kindly fuck off? _

The hospital room is cold, sterile. His children are sitting all around his bed. He looks around the room at the familiar faces, listening to the steady beep of his heart monitor. There's one person missing. He'll just have to wait, he refuses to close his eyes before he gets to say goodbye to his best friend.

There's a ripple in the air. He smiles and thinks, 'he's here.'

He can still recollect the first time he really saw his friend (he doesn't count half a preoccupied glance in a club), and remembers how the little shit introduced him to the dangerous side of his powers with a smirk and smart ass comment.

He was so clueless back then. That was before countless battles with paladins and many personal tribulations which had required him to mature rapidly. The death of his wife at the hands of his mother was one of these things that weighed on his soul.

He still can't understand why Mary would kill her daughter-in-law, and in front of their children no less. But if his fury was red hot, then Griffin's was the sun itself. Griffin got revenge by managing to kill his mother for the deaths of Griffin's family and Millie. He didn't lecture or berate Griffin for that rash act, although he still felt a tinge of pain at her passing.

He looks over as Griffin smiles at him before plopping onto his hospital cot with an easy, lackadaisical manner belying old age. Part of him envies Griffin that. The other jumper has always been everything he is not. It's no wonder they competed and fought all the time when they were younger and chock full of testosterone. Griffin was his rival; the only one he, in all his arrogance, would ever grudgingly accept defeat from.

"How you doing? Still as ugly as ever, I see."

"Nice hair, get stuck in Chechnya power lines again?"

Griffin's eyes narrow though his lips quirk slightly, "And whose fault was it the last time? I fucking hate Chechnya."

"It hates you too." He says before feeling the fade of the initial surge of energy he has come to expect with Griffin's arrival. "I'm trying to sleep, you know." He closes his eyes and says, "So would you kindly fuck off?"

Griffin's laughter is the last thing he hears, and he doesn't think that's such a bad thing.

_2.) I'm giving you a head start, son_

It had been necessary to leave Millie behind. After almost getting her killed a few times, he began to realize that Griffin was right. Paladins don't just go after the jumper, they go after their loved ones, and they don't stop. So he had left her with her mother and swore off ever seeing her again.

He couldn't quite stay away. He found himself watching her from a distance, never revealing himself, but observing her all the same. He knew the dangers, knew he shouldn't. He couldn't stop.

It was okay if his mother was now hunting him down with the intention to gut him, he would still stay near his childhood love. It made him feel normal, but somewhat like a stalker.

He thought maybe his watching Millie had gone unnoticed. He should have known better.

His mother showed up after a few weeks, and preceded to try and kill him. He fought back in self defense, and tried to make sure Millie wasn't going to be endangered. His mother was winning.

Griffin showed up out of nowhere, literally--as in jumped into the area, and then helped him to fight off his mother. He is surprised that Griffin would help him. Maybe Griffin wants to be the one to kill him...

His mother suddenly pulls a cheap trick and manages to catch Griffin unaware, slashing the rogue jumper through the abdomen. The somewhat stifled yell of pain makes David see red.

He throws all his energy into fighting his mother off. She is a bit fatigued from taking on two jumpers at one time, and his jolt of anger is giving him an edge. He is gaining the upper hand when she suddenly moves to finish off Griffin.

He jumps, willing himself in front of his friend, and the knife is buried in his chest as a result. He falls backwards, face pale, laying in Griffin's arms. He opens his mouth, looking up at his mother, but she has turned pale and is backing away from the scene.

"David."

He blinks at Griffin. Smiling dopily, he says, "Guess we're even now."

"Not even close, so you have to stay awake."

"Can't."

Griffin growls. "Yes, you can, you half-wit! I haven't gotten to make your life miserable for leaving me for dead back in fucking Chechnya, of all places."

"Sorry..."

"You don't get off the hook by just saying you're sorry, spoiled brat. Come on, David, don't fucking die!"

David's eyelids feel unbelievably heavy, blood loss leaving him cold as he goes into shock.

Griffin shakes him slightly.

"Sleepy..."

"Don't." Griffin says, then whispers almost inaudibly, "everyone always dies..."

He doesn't answer. He quietly drifts off to eternal rest, and leaves an injured Griffin feeling like the one left with the check after an expensive meal.

Cheated.

fin


End file.
